What kind of data do you need to store? This is important, it will have impacts on everything from access to security to support to backups and redundancies. W

What kind of data do you need to store? This is important, it will have impacts on everything from access to security to support to backups and redundancies. What level of the architecture are you looking at? Do you need better hardware, a better filesystem, a better RDBMS, a better reporting interface for the data you already have? What kind of budget do you have? It's a public school, so it's probably safe to assume $0, but it would be good to know what kind of administrative support you have for this project. What, specifically, is wrong with what you have now? What isn't working? What are your frustrations with it? You may not need two (or any) competent programmers, and I'd be reluctant to recommend Oracle or IBM unless you're looking to solve a problem that they are uniquely good at solving.